By Tim Hepher
DUBLIN, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The head of the world's largest aircraft leasing company, AerCap, cautioned on Monday against overreacting to recent geopolitical and economic uncertainty and said the aviation financing industry worked on secure long-term cycles.
Speaking to Reuters at the industry's largest annual gathering, CEO Aengus Kelly said soaring gold prices reflected currency movements as much as wider risk and that he saw "absolutely no sign" of weaker appetite for dollar-based assets.
"You have to stay to True North. This is a very long-term business, with long-cycle 25-year assets, leases that are 12 years. You just can't react to what's happening on a day-to-day basis in the media or in the political spectrum."
"I'm not saying there aren't risks out there, but you do have to remember you're looking at a very long-term business."
The Airline Economics event brings more than 5,000 delegates, underscoring the sector's emergence as an alternative asset class as well as a barometer of economic risks and trade flows across the globe.
The gathering once again tests the mood of investors after last week's Davos summit exposed an array of political and economic tensions that have pounded the dollar, sending gold prices past $5,000 an ounce for the first time on Monday.
"Some would say about the price of gold that we've had a depreciating major currency for many years... but I know that gold is often seen as a hedge for risk too," Kelly said.
However, he added that other risk indicators like U.S. Treasury yields were still "reasonably low".
Asked whether investors appeared less eager to invest in dollar-denominated assets like aircraft - an appetite seen as underpinning the sector in recent years - Kelly said: "We see absolutely no sign of that. There's no alternative."
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Louise Heavens and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
